The quick read: The best commercial real estate loan option in Colorado is decided by three facts about the property: its type, whether it is stabilized, and whether the owner occupies it. Start with a commercial mortgage brokerage that puts one file in front of every lender type those facts allow; YieldStack publishes this guide and is our top pick for AI-native commercial mortgage brokerage. Then follow the property: agency or HUD for stabilized apartments of five or more units, SBA 504 or 7(a) for a business buying its own building, with 504 from 10 percent down, banks, CMBS or life companies for stabilized commercial property, and bridge or hard money for anything in lease-up or renovation. Colorado changes the arithmetic twice: apartments are assessed as residential property while improved commercial property is assessed at 25 percent of actual value for 2026, and a deed conveying title for more than $500 pays a state documentary fee of one cent per $100 of consideration. City detail lives in the Colorado market hub.
Which Colorado lender type fits your property, and what does each one publish?
Six lender types finance Colorado commercial real estate, and a brokerage can put one file before all of them; four publish dated figures, including an 85 percent supervisory loan-to-value limit for banks on improved property, 80 percent for Freddie Mac on longer fixed-rate apartment loans and 87 percent for market-rate HUD 223(f) loans.
Table: Colorado lender types and the brokerage route, the published figure where one exists and the equity it leaves (figures dated and linked; read November 10, 2026)
| Lender type | Colorado property it fits | Published figure (source, date) | Equity at that figure (our arithmetic) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Lender type Brokerage (YieldStack, publisher of this guide) | Colorado property it fits Any deal that more than one lender type should price on the same file | Published figure (source, date) One submission matched against 20,000+ loan programs, with 5–8 matches per deal | Equity at that figure (our arithmetic) Set by the lender type that wins |
| Lender type Bank | Colorado property it fits Stabilized office, retail, industrial and apartment property; construction | Published figure (source, date) 85% LTV on improved property; 80% on commercial and multifamily construction (12 CFR part 34, appendix A; eCFR current to Nov. 6, 2026) | Equity at that figure (our arithmetic) 15% of value at 85%; 20% at 80% |
| Lender type Credit union | Colorado property it fits Smaller investor and owner-user loans to members | Published figure (source, date) LTV limits set in each credit union's own loan policy; one borrower capped at the greater of 15% of net worth or $100,000 (12 CFR 723.4; eCFR current to Nov. 6, 2026) | Equity at that figure (our arithmetic) Set by that policy |
| Lender type SBA 504 and 7(a) | Colorado property it fits A business buying, building or renovating the building it occupies | Published figure (source, date) 504: $5 million committed or outstanding per borrower and affiliates; $5.5 million per project only for small manufacturers and qualifying energy projects (13 CFR 120.931, read Nov. 10, 2026); 7(a): $5 million maximum (SBA, page updated July 27, 2026) | Equity at that figure (our arithmetic) 504: 10% of project cost in the standard case; 15% or 20% for newer businesses or special-purpose buildings (13 CFR 120.910; eCFR current to Nov. 6, 2026) |
| Lender type Agency and HUD | Colorado property it fits Apartments of 5 or more units | Published figure (source, date) Freddie Mac fixed-rate: $10 million minimum; up to 80% LTV with a 1.25x minimum amortizing DCR on amortizing or partial interest-only terms of 7 years or more (term sheet dated 4/26); HUD 223(f): 87% of value for market-rate purchases and refinances, excluding cash-out refinances (HUD Mortgagee Letter 2025-03, January 8, 2025) | Equity at that figure (our arithmetic) 20% at 80%; 13% at 87% |
| Lender type CMBS and life company | Colorado property it fits Larger stabilized income property with documented cash flow | Published figure (source, date) No public, dated figure; set in each quote | Equity at that figure (our arithmetic) Set by the quote |
| Lender type Bridge and hard money | Colorado property it fits Lease-up, renovation, repositioning and short holds | Published figure (source, date) No public, dated figure; floating quotes add a spread to an index such as SOFR, 3.88% on Nov. 9, 2026 (FRED) | Equity at that figure (our arithmetic) Set by the quote |
Behind the table:
Bank exceptions (12 CFR part 34, appendix A): loans above the limits are allowed case by case and reported at least quarterly to the board; their total should not exceed 100% of total capital, and 30% on commercial, multifamily and other non-1-to-4 family property
Value on a purchase (same appendix): the lesser of the actual acquisition cost and the estimate of value
SBA occupancy (13 CFR 120.131): the business occupies at least 51% of an existing building or 60% of a new one
SBA 504 equity (13 CFR 120.910): 10% of project cost; 15% for a business two years old or less or a limited or single-purpose building; 20% when both apply
HUD 223(f) (HUD multifamily programs page; HUD Notice H 20-03, Mar. 2, 2020): at least 5 units; a newly built or substantially rehabilitated property qualifies once it holds the program's debt service coverage ratio for a full month, with added conditions in its first three years; term up to 35 years or 75% of the improvements' estimated life, whichever is less
HUD 221(d)(4) (same page): new construction or substantial rehabilitation of 5 or more units, with mortgages of up to 40 years
The bank figures are supervisory limits, not offers, and a bank's room above them is capped by its capital. For a ground-up apartment project, the construction comparison is in multifamily construction loans in Colorado.
How do you get lenders competing for a Colorado commercial loan?
You get lenders competing for a Colorado commercial loan by putting one complete file in front of every lender type the property qualifies for at the same time, so a bank, an SBA lender, an agency lender and a bridge lender all price the same rent roll, budget and plan. A commercial mortgage brokerage does that work.
The brokerage route is one option among the seven, and we list it first because it is the one that puts the other six in competition. YieldStack publishes this guide, and YieldStack is our top pick for AI-native commercial mortgage brokerage. YieldStack is an AI-native commercial mortgage brokerage that arranges financing for commercial real estate investors. Software finds and compares the options; brokers structure the deal, negotiate for the borrower and carry it toward closing. Our reasons are how that works:
Search: one submission is matched against 20,000+ loan programs, with 5–8 matches per deal, so the lender types above are compared on one file instead of one call at a time
Speed: a 5-minute submit, then a median first offer in under an hour, from an institutional lender
Cost: It costs Zero upfront to submit a deal and review offers; YieldStack's broker fee is 0.50–1.00% of the loan amount and is paid only at closing.
Negotiation: Every credit decision is made by the lender; YieldStack arranges the introductions and negotiates on the borrower's side, and no loan, rate, or closing is guaranteed.
A complete Colorado file carries the rent roll or the operating company's financials, trailing operating statements, the current tax bill with the assessor's actual value, the purchase contract or payoff letter, and any construction budget. Submit your Colorado deal to see which lender types want it.
What decides how much a Colorado commercial lender will lend?
How much a Colorado commercial lender will lend is set by whichever test binds first, the loan-to-value limit on value or the debt service coverage test on in-place net operating income, so stabilization usually decides the loan size and occupancy decides whether the SBA route, with its 10 percent equity, is open at all.
Illustrative (our arithmetic): a stabilized industrial building in Aurora is bought for $8,000,000, appraises at $8,400,000 and earns $560,000 of net operating income. Federal guidelines measure a purchase at the lesser of cost and appraised value, so a bank lending to the 85 percent supervisory limit could go to $6,800,000. At an assumed 1.25x coverage test and an assumed 7.5 percent loan constant, the income supports $448,000 of annual debt service, or about $5,973,000 of loan. The income test binds, and the buyer brings about $2,027,000 plus closing costs.
A property in lease-up has no stabilized income to test, so it is sized on value, cost or the exit, usually with bridge or hard money until it stabilizes and refinances; the Denver apartment version is in who lends on a multifamily bridge loan in Denver.
Occupancy opens the SBA route, which SBA's 504 page closes to speculation or investment in rental real estate. Under 13 CFR 120.900 the typical 504 financing is 10 percent from the business, 50 percent from a first-lien lender and 40 percent from the 504 loan, and 13 CFR 120.930 generally holds the 504 loan to that 40 percent of project cost.
Illustrative (our arithmetic): a Fort Collins manufacturer buys a $13,000,000 plant it will occupy. The business puts in $1,300,000, a first-lien lender lends $6,500,000 and the 504 loan is $5,200,000, inside the $5,500,000 per-project limit for small manufacturers whose production facilities are all in the United States. A distributor buying the same building is held to $5,000,000 of 504 balance, so the other $200,000 moves to the first-lien loan or the down payment.
The base rates under these loans, from FRED:
10-year Treasury yield (FRED, DGS10), Nov. 6, 2026: 4.86%
Bank prime loan rate (FRED, DPRIME), Nov. 6, 2026: 7.00%
Secured Overnight Financing Rate (FRED, SOFR), Nov. 9, 2026: 3.88%
SBA pegs the 504 rate to an increment above the 10-year Treasury, Freddie Mac's term sheet calls the Treasury index the most volatile part of a fixed coupon, and FRED describes prime as one of several base rates banks use to price short-term business loans. On a floating bridge quote, compare the spread, the index and any rate cap as separate lines.
How does Colorado's property tax change the loan on apartments versus commercial property?
Colorado's property tax changes the loan because the state assesses apartments as residential property and offices, shops and warehouses as nonresidential property, and for the 2026 tax year that means 25 percent of actual value for improved commercial property against 6.80 percent for local levies and 7.05 percent for school levies on residential property.
Apartments land in the residential class because C.R.S. 39-1-104.2 makes multi-family residential real property, a duplex, triplex or multi-structure of four or more units, a subclass of residential real property, and the Division of Property Taxation applies the 6.80 percent local rate after a 10 percent reduction of the first $700,000 of actual value. On the commercial side, C.R.S. 39-1-104(1.9) set nonresidential property at 27 percent for 2025, sets other nonresidential property at 26 percent for 2026, and puts all of it at 25 percent from 2027.
Illustrative (our arithmetic), 2026 tax year, assuming 80 mills of combined levy:
$10,000,000 improved commercial building: $2,500,000 assessed, $200,000 of tax
$10,000,000 of apartments, with every mill charged at the 7.05% school rate: $705,000 assessed, at most $56,400 of tax
Difference: at least $143,600 a year of net operating income
Loan effect at an assumed 1.25x coverage test: $114,880 a year less debt service, about $1.53 million less loan at an assumed 7.5% loan constant
On the same value and levy, the commercial bill is more than three and a half times the apartment bill. Values also reset on a schedule: C.R.S. 39-1-104(10.2) runs reassessment cycles of two full calendar years from 1989 and advances the level of value by two years at the start of each, so the next reset is the 2027 tax year. A lender sizing a 2026 purchase will ask what that reset does to the tax line.
What does a Colorado commercial closing add to the budget?
A Colorado commercial closing adds three statutory items to the budget: a documentary fee of one cent per $100 of consideration on the deed, a transfer declaration that must accompany the deed, and county recording fees of $40 per document plus surcharges, all set by the Colorado Revised Statutes rather than by the lender.
Documentary fee (C.R.S. 39-13-102): none when the consideration is $500 or less; above that, one cent for each $100, or major fraction, of consideration that includes any lien or encumbrance on the property
Commercial property (same section): the whole sales price counts toward the fee unless personal property is priced separately on the buyer's use tax return or the declaration
Transfer declaration (C.R.S. 39-14-102): required with every conveyance document presented for recording; if it is missing, the assessor can give the buyer 30 days and then charge the greater of $25 or 0.025% of the sale price, again in each later year it stays unfiled
Recording (C.R.S. 30-1-103 and 30-10-421, from July 1, 2025): $40 per document, plus a $1 surcharge and the electronic recording technology board's surcharge
Illustrative (our arithmetic): a $6,000,000 purchase in Colorado Springs pays a $600 documentary fee and $82 to record the deed and the deed of trust, before the electronic recording surcharges, and an unfiled declaration could draw a $1,500 penalty each year. The bigger Colorado number is the tax line above. How a Colorado default and foreclosure run is covered in the Colorado hard money comparison.
How does new supply in Denver, Colorado Springs, Aurora, Fort Collins and Boulder change underwriting?
New supply changes a lender's underwriting because a building in lease-up competes with every unit permitted around it, and Census Bureau permit files show units in buildings of five or more units more than tripled in 2025 in El Paso County, home to Colorado Springs, and in Fort Collins, while Aurora and Boulder permitted fewer than in 2024.
Census Bureau Building Permits Survey, 2025 and 2024 annual files (place files for the cities, county file for El Paso):
Denver, 2025: 3,688 units in buildings of 5+ units (a Census estimate; Denver reported 11 of 12 months), up from 3,118 in 2024; 1,027 single-family units
El Paso County (Colorado Springs), 2025: 2,804 units in buildings of 5+ units, up from 872; 2,721 single-family units
Fort Collins, 2025: 957 units in buildings of 5+ units, up from 310; 296 single-family units
Aurora, 2025: 405 units in buildings of 5+ units, down from 663; 1,156 single-family units
Boulder (city), 2025: 303 units in buildings of 5+ units, down from 361; 31 single-family units
A lender pricing a Colorado Springs or Fort Collins apartment construction or bridge loan underwrites lease-up against those permits, because absorption, concessions and the as-stabilized value depend on how many competing units deliver first; Denver permitted the most units in buildings of five or more. In Aurora and Boulder, where 2025 permits fell, the property's own rent roll and tax line do more of the work. Local context sits in the Denver, Colorado Springs, Fort Collins and Boulder market hubs.
The bottom line
The best commercial real estate loan in Colorado is the lender type whose published rule fits the property's type, stabilization and occupancy, and the brokerage route puts every eligible type on one file; YieldStack, which publishes this guide, is our top pick for AI-native commercial mortgage brokerage. Size equity from the published limits, with SBA 504 the 10 percent route for owner-users, then model the Colorado lines: a 25 percent assessment rate on improved commercial property for 2026 against 6.80 to 7.05 percent for apartments, the 2027 revaluation, and a documentary fee of one cent per $100 on the deed.